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Report: 95 mph chase ends with head-on crash

Hot pursuit of an alleged drunk driver at speeds of up to 95 mph — that crossed county lines twice, caused mayhem with eight other motorists and eventually involved four patrol cars from two counties — landed a 20-year-old Culleoka man in jail with minor injuries and a laundry list of criminal charges.

Jeffrey D. Moore, 4607 Brody Drive, was arrested and charged with driving under the influence-2nd offense, aggravated assault, reckless driving, felony evading and driving on a revoked license after leading deputies on a chase that began early Thursday morning.

Sgt. Sam Voss with the Maury County Sheriff’s Department reported he was patrolling on eastbound Highway 50 East near Duck River Electric when a gold 1992 Chevrolet Astro van approached him from behind.

“The van began tailgating my patrol car and flashing his headlights,” Voss reported. “I pulled to the shoulder of the road and began slowing down when the van pulled up beside me and swerved towards my car causing me to take evasive action to prevent a crash.”

It would be just the first of several evasive actions taken by motorists during the events that followed.

The van sped off, and Voss tried to make a traffic stop, but the driver refused to pull over. Instead, he continued to flee east on Highway 50, turned off his headlights and began swerving in and out of the lane of oncoming traffic, Voss reported.

“Speeds reach up to 95 mph and he caused approximately 8 cars to drive off the road to avoid a head-on collision,” Voss continued. “When the van approached the one-lane construction zone over I-65 he ran the red light nearly striking two cars head on and then nearly struck 3 construction workers who were in the lane working.

“They all had to take evasive action to prevent being struck,” the report continued.

After the construction zone, the van continued across the county line, where a Marshall County Sheriff’s patrol car joined in the chase. The van sped on almost to Lewisburg city limits, where it turned into an apartment complex, and the Marshall County car was able to get in front of it, with Voss behind the van, he reported.

“The van then began to back up and turn around when he struck the front end of my patrol car twice causing minor damage,” Voss continued.

The van took off again, heading back the way it had come, and when it drew near the county line once again, two other Maury County patrol cars were waiting. The deputy in one tossed spike strips on the road, which the van was able to avoid, and about a mile later spike strips laid down by the second deputy flattened the van’s driver-side front tire. But it continued on, slower, Voss reported.

Reaching the one-lane construction zone once again, the van began bouncing between the retaining walls before driving north in the southbound lanes of I-65, running over several construction barrels and hitting a construction trailer before crashing into a truck head-on.

“No one was injured in the crash and the van came to rest against the other truck,” Voss wrote.

When the van driver refused to get out of the vehicle, deputies tried the door, found it locked, broke the driver side window and pulled the driver out, according to the report.

“Moore smelled of a loud odor of an alcoholic beverage and appeared to be intoxicated,” Voss reported, “but we were unable to attempt an FST (field sobriety test) due to injuries.”

In the end, Moore was transported to Maury Regional Medical Center and treated for minor injuries and released to the Maury County Jail, where he remained Thursday without bond.

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